Hello, my fellow poets and readers!
Forgive my long absence! I haven’t been posting, but I have still been writing plenty of poetry and learning so much lately. After finishing up my last full semester of my undergrad degree, my nights are finally full or reading, and I have much more time to write during the day.
In this first post after my short hiatus, I have a few helpful tips I want to share on incorporating a fun way to grow your writing skills while not writing, knowing the importance of catching spontaneous inspiration with immediacy, and realizing how reading more poetry can help you become a better poet.
Procrastinating by Podcast
Listening to podcasts regularly has become a hobby of mine. Whether I’m driving back and forth from work or cleaning my house, my go-to podcast to pass time has been The Writer Files, hosted by Kelton Reid. In order to become a better writer, I realized I needed to surround myself with a lot more writerly-ness. So I googled “writer podcasts”, and The Writer Files was the most recommended channel for aspiring writers. And it hasn’t disappointed! I’ve been learning about so many writing hacks, habits and productive tips through Kelton Reid’s commentary and through the scribal testimonies of the authors and writers he hosts on the show.
When you’re not writing, but you still want to further your knowledge of writing, writers, or good reads in general, podcasts like this are an excellent and accessible option. Nearly everyone has Spotify or Apple Podcasts these days. Look up some podcasts that you think will fill your mind with great writing instruction and inspiration, and see how it affects your drive to write.
Ever since I started listening to The Writer Files, I genuinely feel even more attracted to writing, as well as to creating better writing environments and habits for myself. Step by step, I want to take action to practice some of the advice I’ve been able to partake of through this entertaining and informative podcast.
So if you feel stuck in the rut of procrastination or writer’s block, give an episode of The Writer Files a listen, and learn more about the worlds of professional writers while waiting for the inspiration to flow.
Stop, Drop, and Write!
It’s usually when I’m driving or on some intense and fast-paced errand when I have my poetic emergencies. These are those little moments when BOOM! — I have an amazing poetic line in my head, or an intriguing idea that could lead to a poem. And more than I’d like to admit, I think to myself that I’ll be able to retain that thought and return to it later when I’m able to write it down on paper, or when I get back to my laptop. But rarely do I EVER return to that thought.
In my first poetry class I was told that one poet’s interpretation of poetic inspiration was this: That a poem comes to you like a wind, from one side of the sky, and if you don’t reach out and capture it when it passes you, it will move on to the other side of the sky to the next poet that will properly catch it.
This image has stayed with me ever since. So in those moments of disappointment, when I’m languishing after a poem I was so excited to write but that I let fly past me, I know I only have myself to blame. I did not stop and drop whatever I was doing in order to preserve and capture the poem that so graciously flew to me.
Perhaps we all need to think of these poems or inspiring thoughts as old friends that have interrupted whatever we are doing, whether we’re rushing through target or grabbing some emergency ice cream at Walmart. If a dear old friend of yours ran into you while you were busy, you wouldn’t ignore them, would you? No. You’d stop, forget for a second about what you are there to do, and you would give them a little bit of yourself and your time. In reality, that is all these incoming poems want of us. They know that the package in which we capture them will not always be perfect and the most comfortable.
If you’re not reading, are you really writing?
Any seasoned poet will agree that if you wish to write poetry well, you must also be a student of poetry. That doesn’t mean you need to take formal classes, though many do. But it does mean that you should be surrounding yourself with poetry, different styles, different voices, from different times.
In my experience, reading poetry for the sake of writing poetry inspires two habits that lead to producing better poetry overall: writing in response to poetry and writing in imitation or emulation of other poetry or art.
Poetry is written in order to evoke a response in the reader or listener. So a good practice in writing poetry is to take your responses from what you read and fuel it into a poem of your own. Some poets will even do this in regards to art.
Now on imitation, many poetry students think of it as copying, a sentiment that I understand. But when it comes to learning more poetic forms and tools, in my opinion there is no better way to learn than to imitate or seek to emulate what you wish to learn or accomplish. As I discover more poets whose styles, imagery, language or voice I wish to emulate in my own writing, I do copy them, and I do so that I can stretch my skills as a poet. There is a reason in the arts to study the “Greats” and to practice music already written, to imitate art already completed and prose or poetry already written. This is so that as we learn to write or create in similar ways to those before us, we can add our own personal inspirations into the mix, producing something no one else has experienced before.
Some of the ways that you can imitate poems would be through:
- Form (Haiku, Sestina, Free Verse, Sonnet, etc,.)
- Subject
- Voice
- Meter (the rhythmic beats throughout a poem)
- Language
I often focus on imitating form, voice and language, and then I add my own subject to a poem.
Lately I have been reading Mary Oliver’s Felicity in honor of her passing. I did not read any of her poetry before learning of her death, and so I’ve taken it upon myself to immerse myself in her poetry, and I have been discovering many aspects of her work that I wish to emulate and imitate in order to grow as a poet. As of now I have imitated two of her poems, and I can’t wait to challenge myself to imitate more of her breathtaking work.
The point is, though, that I wouldn’t be inspired to emulate Mary Oliver if I was not reading her work in the first place. Read. Read. READ. Whether it’s for ten minutes during your work break or for 30 minutes before you go to bed, it is an absolute necessary for a growing writer to be filling yourself with the written word. Let the poetry of others inspire a blossoming of skills in you that need to be set free.
Thanks for taking the time to soak in these three tips on poetry and writing! I hope they help carry you onto whatever could be the next step in your writing journey.
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”
― Jim Jarmusch
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/imitation
Picture Perfect Poetry 
Thanks for sharing this!
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